Hi! I've been doing lucid dreaming on and off for the past year, but now that I'm on holiday I've started trying again. I've got issues with WILD, and using binaural beats in conjuction with this and WBTB. Normally when I attempt WILD it goes something like this:-I lay down-I attempt gazing into my eylids as to observe hypnogogia whilst not thinking (trying not to think is extremely difficult, even when trying the counting technique etc)-My body begins to feel a bit heavyThereafter, I get an uncomfortable feeling in my solar plexus and I get up. I've also tried this before bed, and after 5 hours of sleep, and 7 on my next try. This process ususally lasts anywhere from 20-40 minutes. I've tried using binaural beats but when I listen to them, I don't get affected by them. When I try doing WBTB after listening to binaural beats, I completely black out without warning. Are there any solutions or is WILD not for me?

So this is about two weeks into my LD training and I'm going to sleep using the WILD technique. I get to the hypnagic images and start seeing a tennis match. Somewhere I lose consciousness. Next thing I know I'm in my house absurd ask the question: Am I dreaming? I feel as though something rushed into my head and I get ex uterus, vut quickly calm myself down. I go up to the light and look at my fingers for a reality check. I looked at my palm and saw the A and counted my fingers; some of them disappeared when I counted. I thought that I would try flying first, so I went outside. It was somewhat cloudy outside so I willed it to rain. It did and it downpoured. I willed it to stop as I was jumping somewhat higher than I should be, about 7 feet, and floating slowly back down. The rain did stop and I decided the change the scene into a more suitable flight area. I imagined.my driveway, long and straight, and turned around. There I was. I started running forward and jumping, trying to get higher and beat the gravity that wasn't there. My visualization wasn't the best because to my left was a city. Three goons were there and i wanted to try something out. I willed myself to become invisible. I looked at my arm and after a few moments nothing happened. My arm then began to slowly disappear. When my arm was gone I smiled and tackled one of the goons. I turned visible again but the willed to be invisible when one goon pulled a gun out. I jumped off and ran away a bit. Then I thought about lightning and pointed at one of them. A doodle of a lightning came down and struck a guy in the head and written words BOOM came out. The same thing happened to the other two.I left and explored the city a bit. Eventually I found a street that was like a bouncy castle, so i tried to jump higher with it. I was flipping and doing midair tricks when a friend jumped next to me and told me that the tricks don't male me jump as high, so I stopped. The street ended and I decided to go to New York City. I closed my eyes and imagined a road and turned around. There I was. There was also this toystore that I decided to go into. There was this very loving couple and an old grandma that reminded me of Psycho. I got lost and ended up in the basement, where two teens where trying to brake into a safe. I wished them luck and went for the other door out. I heard a voice call to me saying "SPD leave now". Some police department. I left and a friend told me that if I got something for her she would help me with LDing. I agreed and left the toystore with her. My alarm went off and I woke up.

I would be convinced that this was a LD if it was vivid. This dream was blurry. I'm asking whether I had an LD, partial or not. I think I remember that I felt my muscles when I was jumping and the rain on my body and me tackling the person. Everything in the dream I felt, but since it wasn't fully vivid ( I have 20/20 vision) and some things were out of control (like the goons showing up and the toystore). Need some info I'm really curious and excited thanks.

Hi Rebecca, I'm a high school student in America, and I'm currently researching lucid dreaming for a report. Your blog is a great source of information, and I'm using it as one of my main sources! Aside from internet and print sources, the report requires an interview source. I was wondering if I could interview you, or if you could recommend any other experienced lucid dreamers. My teacher wants the interview to be set up by the 17th, so it would be great if you could reply before then.Thank you in so much for your consideration!

faunachi wrote:Hi Rebecca, I'm a high school student in America, and I'm currently researching lucid dreaming for a report. Your blog is a great source of information, and I'm using it as one of my main sources! Aside from internet and print sources, the report requires an interview source. I was wondering if I could interview you, or if you could recommend any other experienced lucid dreamers. My teacher wants the interview to be set up by the 17th, so it would be great if you could reply before then.Thank you in so much for your consideration!

Hey. I get asked to interview for a lot of school projects, so I created some standard interview text you can use. I hope this proves useful! Thanks for thinking of me.http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/lucid-dreaming-interview-with-rebecca-turner.html

If you have any other questions not addressed in the interview or on the website, post them here and I'll try to reply in good time.

TNZ wrote:So this is about two weeks into my LD training and I'm going to sleep using the WILD technique. I get to the hypnagic images and start seeing a tennis match. Somewhere I lose consciousness. Next thing I know I'm in my house absurd ask the question: Am I dreaming? I feel as though something rushed into my head and I get ex uterus, vut quickly calm myself down. I go up to the light and look at my fingers for a reality check. I looked at my palm and saw the A and counted my fingers; some of them disappeared when I counted. I thought that I would try flying first, so I went outside. It was somewhat cloudy outside so I willed it to rain. It did and it downpoured. I willed it to stop as I was jumping somewhat higher than I should be, about 7 feet, and floating slowly back down. The rain did stop and I decided the change the scene into a more suitable flight area. I imagined.my driveway, long and straight, and turned around. There I was. I started running forward and jumping, trying to get higher and beat the gravity that wasn't there. My visualization wasn't the best because to my left was a city. Three goons were there and i wanted to try something out. I willed myself to become invisible. I looked at my arm and after a few moments nothing happened. My arm then began to slowly disappear. When my arm was gone I smiled and tackled one of the goons. I turned visible again but the willed to be invisible when one goon pulled a gun out. I jumped off and ran away a bit. Then I thought about lightning and pointed at one of them. A doodle of a lightning came down and struck a guy in the head and written words BOOM came out. The same thing happened to the other two.I left and explored the city a bit. Eventually I found a street that was like a bouncy castle, so i tried to jump higher with it. I was flipping and doing midair tricks when a friend jumped next to me and told me that the tricks don't male me jump as high, so I stopped. The street ended and I decided to go to New York City. I closed my eyes and imagined a road and turned around. There I was. There was also this toystore that I decided to go into. There was this very loving couple and an old grandma that reminded me of Psycho. I got lost and ended up in the basement, where two teens where trying to brake into a safe. I wished them luck and went for the other door out. I heard a voice call to me saying "SPD leave now". Some police department. I left and a friend told me that if I got something for her she would help me with LDing. I agreed and left the toystore with her. My alarm went off and I woke up.

I would be convinced that this was a LD if it was vivid. This dream was blurry. I'm asking whether I had an LD, partial or not. I think I remember that I felt my muscles when I was jumping and the rain on my body and me tackling the person. Everything in the dream I felt, but since it wasn't fully vivid ( I have 20/20 vision) and some things were out of control (like the goons showing up and the toystore). Need some info I'm really curious and excited thanks.

A lucid dream involves either:

a) controlling SOME elements of the dream; and/orb) being aware that you're dreaming

You will rarely/never have TOTAL control of the dream. It is a co-created experience - your conscious ego and your subconscious dreaming mind play important roles.

To me it sounds like you had a semi-lucid dream. To increase clarity and intensity and gain greater control, increase your lucidity by following this tutorial:http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/how-to-stay-lucid.html

Alchemy7 wrote:Hi! I've been doing lucid dreaming on and off for the past year, but now that I'm on holiday I've started trying again. I've got issues with WILD, and using binaural beats in conjuction with this and WBTB. Normally when I attempt WILD it goes something like this:-I lay down-I attempt gazing into my eylids as to observe hypnogogia whilst not thinking (trying not to think is extremely difficult, even when trying the counting technique etc)-My body begins to feel a bit heavyThereafter, I get an uncomfortable feeling in my solar plexus and I get up. I've also tried this before bed, and after 5 hours of sleep, and 7 on my next try. This process ususally lasts anywhere from 20-40 minutes. I've tried using binaural beats but when I listen to them, I don't get affected by them. When I try doing WBTB after listening to binaural beats, I completely black out without warning. Are there any solutions or is WILD not for me?

Wow, three different things going on here. WILD. WBTB. Binaural beats. Let's not mix them all up

Based on the info you've given me...

I'm guessing the uncomfortable feeling in your solar plexus could be a "roll over signal":http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/lucid-dream-tricks.html

It may be a biological communication system between your brain and body, whereby your brain tries to see if you are actually asleep. If you roll over, then you're still awake so nothing deepens. If you resist the urge and stay put, your brain assumes you are asleep and switches on sleep paralysis. In the link above, Nick Newport explains how the aim is to ignore it, so you can have a WILD.

Of course, it may not be that. But you could stay still next time and find out...

If binaural beats don't affect you at all, then there's no point using them. I don't know why this would be -- my first thought is are they legit? There are a lot free recordings online now and I would question some of these free ones, whether they actually do what they are supposed to do. At the risk of sounding paranoid, for example, who knows whether you are really listening to white noise with subliminal advertising. Or maybe the creator just wasn't 100% sure of what they were doing. Or it could be you're just not responsive to brainwave entrainment, for whatever reason. If you use a legit recording, most people can expect to feel the effect; the technology has long been scientifically proven to aid meditation.

I'm not sure why you "completely black out without warning" either. Whether your choice of wording is a bit exaggerated or not - but if you are blacking out without warning, it sounds like a medical condition. If you mean you're just falling asleep real quickly without the chance to WILD, then you're probably just very tired. I'll let you be the judge of that. There's no advice I can give you other than sleep more! Perhaps WBTB is not for you if you are sleep deprived.

WILD could well be for you, especially if you try the roll over signal experiment. I would emphasize that WILD is notoriously the hardest technique to master, so don't give up too easily, but if you are frustrated do try some other techniques too. I'd say the best practice for WILD is daily meditation (without the goal of having a lucid dream). Meditation is an excellent lifestyle habit in and of itself.

Hi, Rebecca! Ive read a lot of your work and it has really inspired me to start lucid dreaming.

I've been practicing lucid dreaming for three moths now by keeping a dream journal and doing reality checks whenever coming in contact with a frequent dream sign. However, in the dream world, even when I come in contact with those dream signs, my dream self doesn't stop to think to preform a reality check at all. I've also been attempting to preform the WILD technique by waking up in the middle of the night and remaining still with my mind awake and alert (still no success however). Would you have any suggestions or tips for me?